French Tennis Player Handed Code Violation For Fixing Her Backwards Top

French tennis player Alize Cornet was handed a code violation during her round one match against Sweden‘s Johanna Larsson at the US Open yesterday for trying to put her shirt on the right way around while on the court, the ABC reports.

Well, that’s fucking ridiculous.

And it’s deservedly sparked a lot of outrage about double standards in tennis – because while it’s totally cool for Novak Djokovic to change shirts/have a topless ice-bath courtside mid-match, a woman – wearing a sports bra mind you – can’t take her shirt off for 15 seconds to make a much-needed adjustment.

It goes like this: Cornet returned to the court after a medically induced heat break, only to realise that in that time she’d put her change of shirt on backwards. So she did the reasonable thing: she put her bag down, went to the shadowy bit at the back of the court, turned away from the audience and Larsson, racquet between her legs, and took her shirt off before putting it on the right around.

And that’s when she was issued with the code violation by umpire Christian Rask for ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’. A whole 15 seconds of it.

Cornet, world #31 seed, went on to lose her match against Larsson, #82, in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

One person deeply unimpressed with Rask’s call was Andy Murray‘s mum, Judy.

The Women’s Tennis Association – founded by Billie Jean King in the early ’70s – demands women change their shirts off court, in the “most private location“.

Because of the super high temperatures at the tournament – going up to 38°C – an extreme heat policy was implemented, offering a ten-minute break for women before the third set, and for men before the fourth.

This latest blatant instance of sexism in tennis comes less than a month after the President of the French Tennis Federation, Bernard Guidicelli, decided to ban Serena Williams‘ powerful catsuit outfit, deeming it ‘disrespectful’ to the sport of tennis. The Nike bodysuit Williams wore during this year’s French Open was designed to help with blood circulation, as Williams suffered dangerous blood clots as a complication during childbirth – she had her daughter back in September last year. She said at the time it made her feel like a “warrior” and a “superhero“.

How did Williams answer that? She wore a tutu and compression fishnets to her opening round at the US Open. Fierce.

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